Atkins Diet Review

Overview:

Type: Low-Carb

The Aim: Loss of Weight

The Claim: The Atkins Diet claims you will lose up to 15 pounds in just two weeks time all while eating fatty foods that you might have thought were off limits.

The Theory: According to the Atkins Diet your body is like an engine and needs constant fuel. While the body typically goes for stored carbohydrates to supply that fuel, the Atkins Diet all but takes them out of the equation forcing your body to use stored fats as its fuel source, thus melting away the pounds.

How the Atkins Diet Works

The Atkins Diet is the original “low-carb” diet. Basically by eating as many proteins and fats as you like your carbohydrates are restricted in a big way. This is done in four different phases and each phase adds a small amount of carbs to the equation.

In the first phase you get to have 20 “net carbs” per day, 15 of which have to come from “foundation vegetables.” While it can get tricky, the Atkins Diet now has charts that you can refer to that will help with all the complicated arithmetic.

Do Dieters Lose Weight on the Atkins Diet?

The Atkins Diet is usually most successful in the first two weeks regarding weight loss. However, with the kind of diet that it is, there are a lot of key foods that people enjoy that get taken out all together. This makes it hard to stick to and thus the long-term weight loss results are not usually all that great.

Does the Atkins Diet Conform to Accepted Dietary Guidelines?

Using the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans as a benchmark, the Atkins Diet easily conforms in the area of protein. However, because the diet is a low-carb diet, the carbohydrate benchmark is missed in a big way. Thanks to the increase in fatty foods acceptable with the Atkins Diet, the fats area is typically a big miss as well.

Other “nutrients of concern” such as fiber, potassium, calcium, Vitamin B-12 and Vitamin D are hard to achieve as the high protein diet doesn’t usually allow for many of the foods that can supply these supplements. This is likely why the Atkins Diet recommends taking a daily multivitamin as well as supplementing with Omega 3, calcium and magnesium.

Is The Atkins Diet Easy to Follow?

The Atkins Diet is a wonderful diet, but usually only at first. While it is great to get to eat items such as cheeses, eggs, steak, chicken, and more, the high protein diet can grow weary in an awful hurry. Because you will have to all but stop eating breads and pastas, your cravings may become too much to handle and cheating might begin.

However, the Atkins Diet is not a diet that can tolerate cheating at any level. This is likely why those seeking weight loss for the long-term often don’t fare well with the Atkins Diet.

How Much Does the Atkins Diet Cost?

The Atkins Diet costs as much as you want it too. You will have to buy the guide titled The New Atkins for a New You and that alone will run you $16. After that your cost will all depend on your personal taste.

When shopping for the diet you can buy cheaper meat or more expensive meat and depending on the brands you buy and how much of those brands you purchase, you might spend more or less than someone else doing the diet. The Atkins Diet also puts out some snack bars and those too can add to the cost of the diet should you choose to buy them for convenience.

Does the Atkins Diet Allow for Restrictions and Preferences?

Yes. It does require a bit of manipulation, but for the most part the Atkins Diet can be molded to your personal dietary needs. This includes the needs of those who want to go gluten-free, low to no salt, Kosher, Halal, vegan or vegetarian, though some routes are tougher to go down than others.

What is the Role of Exercise with the Atkins Diet?

The Atkins Diet encourages all dieters to exercise regularly, but it is not a requirement. Those who wish to be active while on the Atkins Diet are told to wait to do so until after the first two weeks are finished. This allows the body enough time to get acclimated to the diet so it won’t fatigue during exercise as easily.

I have been in ketios for 2 weeks (dark shade of purple) but NOT loseing weight…What am I doing wrong..very low carb diet… drinking water…I go to water arobics 3 x a week…I no longer have cravings for sweets….But shoulden’t I be losing weghtas well????